The Best Coaches Excel at the 4 E's

Posted on 08/14/2014 in Sales Coaching

Sales Coaching is the process of working with a sales professional to reinforce or change selling behavior in order to improve sales results.

As a coach, your job is to create and foster an environment for improvement. You accomplish this by asking questions, listening, offering encouragement, and communicating expectations. You facilitate problem solving, and provide access to information. Your goal is to transfer a feeling of ownership so that the person stays present in the coaching conversation and ultimately feels empowered and motivated to act and improve.

The Best Coaches Excel at the 4 E's: 

Expectations - The number one reason why people don’t do what a manager expects is due to confusion or lack of clarity about expectations.  Clearly state the expectations and standards of performance.  Discuss and explain with each person why and how these expectations are important. 

Education - The best coaches are the best teachers.  Once you have communicated your expectations, then it is only fair and reasonable to teach the person how to do a particular skill or task.

Encouragement - Improved performance is a combination of increased competence and confidence. Do not underestimate the motivational power of offering encouragement and praise.   

Exampling - Nothing communicates more strongly than to lead by example.  Your willingness and ability to demonstrate and model the skills and behaviors is a critical step.  

The best sales managers spend more time coaching and developing their entire sales team because they have learned that sales coaching is essential to generating improved sales results.  Average managers, by contrast, don’t spend as much time on coaching their sales professionals and when they do coach, they don’t coach as effectively. Visit STAR's Coaching for Sales Success page and One-on-One Coaching pages for more information. Want to teach your sales people how to improve sales skills, such as their pre-call planning ability or how to handle objections better?  Visit STAR's Sales Meeting Kits page for more information.

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